Happy 100th Birthday!!

Today would have been my Dad's 100th birthday.  Unfortunately, he is not here to celebrate, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about him.

I gave him this belt bucket one year for his birthday, or maybe it was for Christmas, anyway the silver dollar was minted in 1921, the year of his birth.  My parents were square dancers so he wore it a lot when they went square dancing.

My Dad was a hard man. As a child, I saw him:

Shear sheep.

Shoe horses.

Butcher cows.

Butcher pigs.

Deliver supplies to a snow-bound family on horseback during the blizzard of 1959.

Do maintenance on all types of farm equipment.

Plant fields of corn, oats, and alfalfa.

Harvest fields of corn, oats, and alfalfa. 

Not to mention milk cows every 12 hours for decades.

He also had a reputation as a "man of his word".

Why did he have all those skills?  Because he was a dairy farmer during the middle of the twentieth century in Grant County, Wisconsin.

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

So proud to be your daughter!

NEVADA/ARIZONA ROADTRIP

 WE HAD A GREAT ROAD TRIP THIS WEEK. THE FIRST STOP WAS THE EAST ENTRANCE OF THE GRAND CANYON WHERE WE'VE VISITED BEFORE AND DIDN'T TAKE ANY PICTURES.  THE SECOND STOP WAS THE HORSESHOE BEND ON THE COLORADO RIVER AT PAGE , AZ. (PICTURED ABOVE). A MILE AND A HALF HIKE.

THIS IS THE GLENN CANYON DAM ON THE COLORADO RIVER AT PAGE, AZ. THAT FORMS LAKE POWELL (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT).

THE NEXT DAY WE DROVE ACROSS THE SOUTHERN PART OF ZION NATIONAL PARK INCLUDING THE FAMOUS TUNNEL.

THE SECOND NIGHT WAS AT THE VIRGIN RIVER CASINO IN MESQUITE, NV.  THIS IS OUR FAVORITE CASINO AND STILL RUNS ON THE OLD VEGAS BUSINESS MODEL.

IF YOU'RE NOT GAMING YOU CAN ACTUALLY PURCHASE A BOTTLE OF BEER FOR ONLY $3. OR A JACK & COKE FOR $4.

LUNCH IS CHEAP AND FOR DINNER YOU STAND IN A LINE TO ENTER THE 24 HOUR CAFE FOR A PRIME RIB SPECIAL FOR $8.99.

THE ROOM WAS $27, BUT THEY COMPED THE ROOM, GAVE MARY $20 IN FREE PLAY, AND A 25% OFF COUPON ON THE PRIME RIB. THE BEST PART IS YOU CAN SIT AND PLAY NICKEL VIDEO POKER A FEW HOURS ON $20 AND HIT 4 OF A KIND ONCE IN AWHILE.

IT'S ALL GREAT OLD FASHION CASINO FUN!

ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT WE STAYED DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS ON FREMONT STREET AT THE 4 QUEENS AS USUAL WITH NO RESORT FEE, AND FREE PARKING FOR $44.  THE LAST TIME WE WERE IN VEGAS WAS MARCH 17, 2020 AND THE GOVERNOR OF NEVADA CLOSED ALL THE CASINOS BECAUSE OF COVID.  ON THIS TRIP WE MADE HISTORY AGAIN AS THE OLD RECORD FOR THE HOTTEST DAY AT 114 DEGREES WAS BROKEN AT 4 PM WHEN THE TEMPERATURE HIT 116 DEGREES.  DESPITE THE HEAT, I HAD MY WALKING SHOES ON AND SET A NEW PERSONAL HIGH FOR STEPS IN ONE DAY.

 OUR PURPOSE FOR VEGAS WAS TO CHECK OUT THE NEW CIRCA CASINO.  FROM THE GROUND UP IT COVERS ONE CITY BLOCK. 

THE VEGAS VICKY SIGN FROM THE OLD STRIP CLUB, GLITTER GULCH, SITS INSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TWO STORY CASINO.

THE SPORTSBOOK IS DESIGNED LIKE A STADIUM AND THAT VIDEO SCREEN IS TWO STORIES TALL.  THE MEGA BAR (LONGEST BAR IN VEGAS) HAS 56 BIG TV'S ON THE BACK BAR.

 

STADIUM SWIM IS ANOTHER BIG DRAW FEATURE AT THE NEW CIRCA. THE SIX SWIMMING POOLS ARE LOCATED ON THE 5TH FLOOR. THAT VIDEO SCREEN IS 40 FEET LONG. I STOLE THE PICTURE OFF THE INTERNET AND THIS IS HOW CLOSE I GOT TO SEEING THE POOLS AND SCREEN.

INSTEAD OF PAYING $40 TO SWIM WE ELECTED TO GO TO THE TOP (60TH FLOOR) TO THE LEGACY BAR FOR A BEER.

AS YOU CAN SEE BY THE PRICE ($30) WE WEREN'T IN MESQUITE ANYMORE.

THIS IS A DISPLAY OF 2 OZ GOLD BARS AND A DIGITAL DISPLAY OF THEIR NET WORTH THAT CHANGES AS THE CURRENT PRICE OF GOLD FLUCTUATES. 

THE REST OF THESE PICTURES SHOW THE VIEWS FROM THE LEGACY BAR WHICH INCLUDES AN OUTDOOR PATIO.

 ON THURSDAY WE RETURNED TO OUR COOL WHITE MOUNTAINS OF ARIZONA.

                             THE END

Golden Birthday

My oldest granddaughter is celebrating her Golden Birthday today which makes her 27 years old.  Her name is Delilah Mary. And yes, I totally love the fact that her middle name is Mary. I have decided that on Delilah's golden birthday I will tell a Delilah story.

I have always been a long-distance Grandma so have mailed my grandchildren their birthday cards.  And when we were all a lot younger the cards even had money in them.  

So imagine my great surprise and delight when my granddaughter, Delilah, sent me this.

With these treasures inside.

She sent me this in 2004 when she was 10 years old.  I wonder if she remembers sending it?  Guess I will have to ask her on Monday when she comes to visit us on the Texas Gulf.

The Fuller Brush Man

Do you remember the " Fuller Brush" man? 

I grew up on a small dairy farm in Southwestern Wisconsin and believe me, it was quite exciting when the Fuller Brush man came.  As it was when the Watkins man came.  Thank God there was an Avon lady, otherwise, people might wonder about all the men. 

I recently saw an ad for Fuller Brush on the Internet. Must not have salespeople working the countryside anymore. Long story short, I ordered this:

An old-fashioned carpet sweeper.  It really is handy. So much easier than dragging out the vacuum every time there is a little bit of something on the carpet and it works on bare floors too. 

In fact, it is so handy even Rex uses it!!

The Bishop's Wife

On Facebook this morning I saw a post that asked for the name of a movie that you had watched more than five times.  My initial thought was "NO WAY"!  I can barely get myself to sit and watch once let alone five times.  Sitting is not my strong suit.  But as I actually thought about it, I realized I had watched one movie several times, probably at least 5.

The movie is, " The Bishop's Wife"* starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven-it's an old movie.  From the same era as "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. Most people probably won't recognize these actors but they were some of the biggest stars of their generation.

It is a wonderful movie with many life lessons beautifully woven into the script.  Some so subtle you almost miss them.  There is humor, and scenes that are so beautiful I can't think how to describe them.

I cannot think of a more uplifting movie.

 *Obviously, not a Roman Catholic Bishop.

   

Charitable Giving

 In my mailbox one day, was a fundraising letter from the American Heart Association.  I have had solicitations before and just filed them in the circular file. 

But I looked at it and thought about the fact that my son has had open-heart surgery.  So a modest sum was sent.

A tsunami ensued!!  My mailbox became loaded with solicitations.  I'm not going to list them all but I would say at least 10 different charities sent me stuff.  And when I say stuff, I mean stuff. 

I started receiving return address labels and scratch pads.   Lots and lots of them.  And all so cute with seasonal themes, think Christmas, Halloween, spring, winter, and all so very cute!  I would feel bad to ignore them so I gave myself a small budget to sort of "spread around".

That just created an avalanche of mail.  Whatever donations I have given, have long since been used up in printing costs. Does that make any sense???

This is just a small pile of the stuff I have received.

Sometimes my mailbox has solicitation letters, I file them in the circular file.

Let me clarify, I file them after removing the usable "stuff".  I just could not see that filling a landfill with them gained anything.  I am confident they will quit sending stuff as I have quit sending money.

An Inch and a Half

Five feet four and one-half inches is my current height. I say current because for most of my life I have been 5' 6".  How can you lose 1.5 inches and not notice?  And where the hell did it go???

That's a stupid question. Of course, it went to my hips!!  Might not be an inch and a half of bone, but it is an inch and a half of something.

That inch and a half really changed my self-image.  I have always felt that at 5'6', I was a tall person.  At 5'4.5",  suddenly I felt like I was a short person.  It has been an adjustment.  Much more than I would have ever guessed.

I went for a bone density test last month and on the questionnaire were a couple questions I found interesting.

1.  What is the tallest you have ever been?

2.  How many times have you fallen in the last year?

Guess I am not the only one that becomes height-challenged with age.

Self-perception is a real "thing", and a person's height is part of that perception.

So sad what time does to a person's face.  But for some perverse reason, I like this picture.  Perception.

The Crown Jewel

Now for the crown jewel of my bathroom redo.  A beautiful glitzy light fixture!  Dave, my wonderful friend of 42 years, and his wife drove 2 hours to install it for me!!

As a bonus, we had a nice visit with good friends!

 

Bathroom Update

I love watching HGTV and seeing what people do with their spaces.  The one thing I have learned from watching all of these programs: the next person to buy our cute little cabin in the mountains will gut it.  

So I got a "why not"? attitude.  Unconventional colors: "why not?"  So I spent most of the last month painting my bathroom ceiling, walls, and cabinets. Thank goodness I painted the woodwork a couple of years ago!  The bathroom doubles as our laundry room which required the room to be painted in sections.  

 After seeing a couple of YouTube videos on stenciling, I thought "why not"?  I may have gotten a little carried away, but "why not"?  

These projects give me something to do and something to think about.  And it's only paint, if I hate it in a month I can paint it something else.  Now isn't that a scary thought?

 I know that not everyone will be on board with my color choices, but I love how bright it is. And as I mentioned, the next owners will most likely gut it.  I'm going to up that to the next owners WILL gut it.

  

The Last Few Days

We have had wonderful weather the last few days.  The kind of weather that makes one think of spring.  So getting out and doing stuff is truly a pleasure. We went to Show Low park yesterday and walked their trail.  The paved trail is just over a mile, so a nice easy walk.  They also have some exercise machines.

You can't see the handles, but when you sit on the machine the handles are up high.  I have to stretch to reach them.  The object is to pull the handles down. When you do that, you are supporting your weight. I try this machine every time we go to this park just to see if I can still do it.  So far so good!

This morning while walking in our RV park, we saw this crane.

I was amazed at how close I was able to get to him.  He must like it here as I have seen him several times.

So at the top of today's list, was "clean gutters".

                                   

Thank God!!!  We can now cross this job off the list.  

Facebook

I don't know about you, but I am really getting disenchanted with Facebook.  My feed is full of ads even though I keep trying to hide them.  The reason I went on Facebook, to begin with, was to keep up with the lives of friends and family, especially my grandchildren.   

Sometimes my feed is full of the exact same quote or joke or whatever because all of my friends share the same thing.  How can you eliminate duplicate posts??  Or is it even possible??

Otherwise, my feed is filled up with "suggested" content, which for me, is either cooking or craft videos.  Yes some of these things I enjoy, but I can search all day long for stuff like that and find tons.  I don't want that on my page in place of news of friends and family. 

 Does anyone else feel this way??

The Super Bowl

*** I forgot to publish this last night!!

I am watching the Super Bowl.  Brady just threw for his second touchdown.  Rex asked me who I thought would win the Buccaneer/Kansas City matchup before the game started.  I thought then, as I do now, that the Buc's will win. 

I understand that a LOT of people do not like Brady.  They find him arrogant and a lot of other things apparently.  I find him interesting.  I admire someone that has had the success he has had and goes to Tampa Bay after 20 very successful years with the Patriots. I think it takes a lot of guts for him to challenge himself like that.

 As far as I can tell, Tom Brady "walks the walk".  He actually puts in the work it takes to maintain his abilities.  He has to look within himself to find the motivation and dedication to put in the work required to maintain that level of performance.  I feel the same about Olympic athletes.  Of course, Olympians start with the dedication and hard work at a very young age.

I do not know Tom Brady personally, he might be a totally unpleasant person, but I still admire a lot of his qualities.

Can't help it, I was brought up to applauded excellence.  So I will.

I have heard some people say they thought "the fix" was "in" for the "old guy" to win.  If that's the case, what's the point?  Why would you ever watch the NFL again?  It's like the news.  I have quit watching the news because I don't believe anything they say.  So why would I stress (the news is very stressful) over something that has a high probability of being untrue?  

 

The Rim Trail

Today we went for a hike on the Rim Trail.  This is one of our favorite places to hike. The path that we take is a little over a mile, just a nice little walk, and part of it is paved.

The Rim Trail, located 2.6 miles from our house, is part of the Mogollon (pronounced muggy-own) Rim.  The rim is a geological feature that extends about 200 miles across Northern Arizona.  We have hiked different portions of this trail around the rim and have never been disappointed.

From this trail, you can see a portion of the largest stand of Ponderosa Pine in the world. Amazing to think that we are in the midst of such awesome beauty every day. 

We are so blessed!!